diff --git a/src/calibre/__init__.py b/src/calibre/__init__.py
index 706391f1a7..3bf1f03b42 100644
--- a/src/calibre/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/__init__.py
@@ -2,11 +2,15 @@
 __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2008, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
-import sys, os, re, logging, time, subprocess, atexit, mimetypes
+
+import sys, os, re, logging, time, subprocess, atexit, mimetypes, warnings
 from htmlentitydefs import name2codepoint
 from math import floor
 from logging import Formatter
 
+warnings.simplefilter('ignore', DeprecationWarning)
+
+
 from PyQt4.QtCore import QUrl
 from PyQt4.QtGui  import QDesktopServices
 from calibre.startup import plugins, winutil, winutilerror
diff --git a/src/calibre/linux.py b/src/calibre/linux.py
index 7abd9c027c..039d52985a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/linux.py
+++ b/src/calibre/linux.py
@@ -410,45 +410,27 @@ def option_parser():
                       help='Save a manifest of all installed files to the specified location')
     return parser
 
-def install_man_pages(fatal_errors):
-    from bz2 import compress
-    import subprocess
+def install_man_pages(fatal_errors, use_destdir=False):
+    from calibre.utils.help2man import create_man_page
+    prefix = os.environ.get('DESTDIR', '/') if use_destdir else '/'
+    manpath = os.path.join(prefix, 'usr/share/man/man1')
+    if not os.path.exists(manpath):
+        os.makedirs(manpath)
     print 'Installing MAN pages...'
-    manpath = '/usr/share/man/man1'
-    f = NamedTemporaryFile()
-    f.write('[see also]\nhttp://%s.kovidgoyal.net\n'%__appname__)
-    f.flush()
     manifest = []
-    os.environ['PATH'] += ':'+os.path.expanduser('~/bin')
     for src in entry_points['console_scripts']:
-        prog = src[:src.index('=')].strip()
-        if prog in ('prs500', 'pdf-meta', 'epub-meta', 'lit-meta',
-                    'markdown-calibre', 'calibre-debug', 'fb2-meta',
-                    'calibre-fontconfig', 'calibre-parallel', 'odt-meta',
-                    'rb-meta', 'imp-meta', 'mobi-meta'):
+        prog, right = src.split('=')
+        prog = prog.strip()
+        module = __import__(right.split(':')[0].strip(), fromlist=['a'])
+        parser = getattr(module, 'option_parser', None)
+        if parser is None:
             continue
-
-        help2man = ('help2man', prog, '--name', 'part of %s'%__appname__,
-                    '--section', '1', '--no-info', '--include',
-                    f.name, '--manual', __appname__)
+        parser = parser()
+        raw = create_man_page(prog, parser)
         manfile = os.path.join(manpath, prog+'.1'+__appname__+'.bz2')
         print '\tInstalling MAN page for', prog
-        try:
-            p = subprocess.Popen(help2man, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-        except OSError, err:
-            import errno
-            if err.errno != errno.ENOENT:
-                raise
-            print 'Failed to install MAN pages as help2man is missing from your system'
-            break
-        o = p.stdout.read()
-        raw = re.compile(r'^\.IP\s*^([A-Z :]+)$', re.MULTILINE).sub(r'.SS\n\1', o)
-        if not raw.strip():
-            print 'Unable to create MAN page for', prog
-            continue
-        f2 = open_file(manfile)
-        manifest.append(f2.name)
-        f2.write(compress(raw))
+        open(manfile, 'wb').write(raw)
+        manifest.append(manfile)
     return manifest
 
 def post_install():
@@ -460,9 +442,9 @@ def post_install():
     manifest = []
     setup_desktop_integration(opts.fatal_errors)
     if opts.no_root or os.geteuid() == 0:
+        manifest += install_man_pages(opts.fatal_errors, use_destdir)
         manifest += setup_udev_rules(opts.group_file, not opts.dont_reload, opts.fatal_errors)
-        manifest += setup_completion(opts.fatal_errors)
-        manifest += install_man_pages(opts.fatal_errors)
+        manifest += setup_completion(opts.fatal_errors)        
     else:
         print "Skipping udev, completion, and man-page install for non-root user."
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py b/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py
index 9c852c554e..020c0a0e3d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py
+++ b/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ DEPENDENCIES = [
             ('lxml', '2.1.5', 'lxml', 'python-lxml', 'python-lxml'),
             ('python-dateutil', '1.4.1', 'python-dateutil', 'python-dateutil', 'python-dateutil'),
             ('BeautifulSoup', '3.0.5', 'beautifulsoup', 'python-beautifulsoup', 'python-BeautifulSoup'),
-            ('help2man', '1.36.4', 'help2man', 'help2man', 'help2man'),
             ]
         
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/trac/plugins/templates/linux.html b/src/calibre/trac/plugins/templates/linux.html
index 066f3c9b6d..96881aa108 100644
--- a/src/calibre/trac/plugins/templates/linux.html
+++ b/src/calibre/trac/plugins/templates/linux.html
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ sudo python -c "import urllib2; exec urllib2.urlopen('http://calibre.kovidgoyal.
                                     be ignored.
                                 </li>
                                 <li>
-                                    You must have help2man and xdg-utils installed 
+                                    You must have xdg-utils installed 
                                     on your system before running the installer.
                                 </li>
                                 <li>
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/help2man.py b/src/calibre/utils/help2man.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..603c0d6484
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/help2man.py
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+from __future__ import with_statement
+__license__ = 'GPL 3'
+__copyright__ = '2009, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
+__docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
+
+import time, bz2
+
+from calibre.constants import __version__, __appname__, __author__
+
+
+def create_man_page(prog, parser):
+    usage  = parser.usage.splitlines()
+    for i, line in enumerate(list(usage)):
+        if not line.strip():
+            usage[i] = '.PP'
+        else:
+            usage[i] = line.replace('%prog', prog)
+    lines = [
+             '.TH ' + prog.upper() + ' "1" ' + time.strftime('"%B %Y"') + 
+             ' "%s (%s %s)" "%s"'%(prog, __appname__, __version__, __appname__),
+             '.SH NAME',
+             prog + r' \- part of '+__appname__,
+             '.SH SYNOPSIS',
+             '.B "%s"'%prog + r'\fR '+' '.join(usage[0].split()[1:]),
+             '.SH DESCRIPTION',
+             ]
+    lines += usage[1:]
+    
+    lines += [
+              '.SH OPTIONS'
+              ]
+    def format_option(opt):
+        ans = ['.TP']
+        opts = []
+        opts += opt._short_opts
+        opts.append(opt.get_opt_string())
+        opts = [r'\fB'+x.replace('-', r'\-')+r'\fR' for x in opts]
+        ans.append(', '.join(opts))
+        help = opt.help if opt.help else ''
+        ans.append(help.replace('%prog', prog).replace('%default', str(opt.default)))
+        return ans
+    
+    for opt in parser.option_list:
+        lines.extend(format_option(opt))
+    for group in parser.option_groups:
+        lines.append('.SS '+group.title)
+        for opt in group.option_list:
+            lines.extend(format_option(opt))
+    
+    lines += ['.SH SEE ALSO', 
+              'The User Manual is available at '
+              'http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/user_manual',
+              '.PP', '.B Created by '+__author__]
+    
+    return  bz2.compress('\n'.join(lines))
+
+def main():
+    from calibre.ebooks.epub.from_any import option_parser
+    open('/tmp/any2epub.1calibre.bz2', 'w').write(create_man_page(
+                                                'any2epub', option_parser()))
+    
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()
\ No newline at end of file